Sunday, August 25, 2024: Join us Today for our Emmaus community celebration:
We start at 3:45 with a welcoming: 4:00 Liturgy:
5:00 Yummy Potluck and massive sharing
In-Person at Knox Presbyterian and Thanksgiving Lutheran (a facility we share with both congregations)
1650 West Third Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
or Join Zoom Meeting with this link:
Passcode: 1234
Or Use the Meeting ID: 519 315 8573
Passcode: 1234
Or by Phone: +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose) +16694449171,,5193158573#Emmaus Liturgy for August 25, 2024
Emmaus Liturgy for August 25, 2024 by Nancy, Mary Ellen and Dan V.
Files for Downloading in WORD and PDF formats:
Welcome: (Dan) I recently saw on the giant screen an exquisite Norwegian documentary film entitled “Songs of Earth.” It was a poetic and sweet experience that lingered in my soul long after the credits rolled. To reduce this cinematic gem to the micro-screen on a mobile phone is sort of an act of rebellion from life itself that refuses to be sacrificed and almost buried in a too-small technological grave that cannot contain her.
From the beginning, and at every moment of her unpredictable adventure, the creative and loving Energy has experienced herself flaring forth through innumerable inventions and upheavals in the Universe---as planets, sentient and human beings, cultures and religions, our consciousness, emotions, relationships. interactions. The God of life is permanently generating the immeasurable and challenging novelty, transmutation, and experimentation.
Why do we stop the process? How dare we confine the overflowing Fountain into the boxes of our concepts, rules or laws?
Just as Moses had to deal with an Israel wrapped up in carved idols rather than witnessing a trustworthy relationship to the unnamable Giver of the covenant, Jesus also experiences and confronts the religious constraints of his time, manifesting the compassionate God that inspires and nourishes him. He suffers the hostility of specific groups of people who try to deny or avoid the change and upheaval of life.
Among them are those who are wealthy, filled with their own goods, without care for others or for other dimensions of being; there are those who are religious, carefully engineering their own willpower, perfection, and superiority systems; and there are those who consider themselves intelligent, pretending to reduce the world to the measure of their own understanding.
OPENING SONG: The Sound of Silence – Lifein3D [4:26]
OPENING PRAYER: Nancy
Here is the river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid, who will try to hold on to the shore. They are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore. Push off into the middle of the river, and keep our heads above water.
And I say, see who is there with youand celebrate. At this time in history we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves. Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. For we are the ones we have been waiting for.
This letting go, feels so essential as humans in discovery of the worlds to come. I hope for courage, for all of us. Amen.
FIRST READING: Denise The Sea (a brief intro by Mary Ellen)
I need the sea because it teaches me.
I don’t know if I learn music or awareness,
if it’s a single wave or its vast existence,
or only its harsh voice or its shining suggestion of fishes and ships.
The fact is that until I fall asleep,in some magnetic way
I move in the university of the waves.
It’s not simply the shells crunched
as if some shivering planet were giving signs of its gradual death; no,
I reconstruct the day out of a fragment, the stalactite from the sliver of salt,
and the great god out of a spoonful.
What it taught me before, I keep.
It’s air ceaseless wind, water and sand.
It seems a small thing for a young man,
to have come here to live with his own fire;
nevertheless, the pulse that rose and fell in its abyss,
the crackling of the blue cold,
the gradual wearing away of the star,
the soft unfolding of the wave squandering snow with its foam,
the quiet power out there, sure as a stone shrine in the depths,
replaced my world in which were growing
stubborn sorrow, gathering oblivion,
and my life changed suddenly:
as I became part of its pure movement.
- Pablo Neruda
GOSPEL: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
That Which Defiles: JoAnn
7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.
Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from within and defile a person.”
Homily: Mary Ellen
Jesus says "I am the Way and the Truth and the Light." and "Come follow me." And in his introduction, Dan asks "How dare we confine the overflowing Fountain into the boxes of our concepts, rules or laws? To follow Jesus we can do as he did, freeing ourselves from the rules set by society and the church, and being in tune with the Universe, with the Divine, with God. The "Way" of Jesus reminds me of the "Way" of Taoism. Some of its principles are:
--Go with the flow
--Detachment of ego, letting go of unnecessary desires and fears
--Thinking independently (contrasted with Confucianism which has a lot of social
rules)
--Oneness, unity
--Harmonious action, doing the right thing at the right time
--Being in tune with the cycles of nature
The opening prayer from the Elders of the Hopi Nation encourage entering into the flow, letting go and unity: "Here is the river flowing now very fast...let go of the shore. Push off into the middle of the river...see who is there with you and celebrate."
In his sublime poem "The Sea," the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda also emphasizes
nature, oneness and entering into the flow. "I move in the university of the
waves...my life changed suddenly as I became part of its pure movement."
And when Jesus says You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto human traditions." he reminds us that human traditions, rules and laws are to be used in service to God, they are not an end in themselves.
Keeping these principles in mind can help us live towards "harmonious action and doing the right thing at the right time," that is--following the Way and following Jesus.
For reflection:
What practices help you to be more in tune with the Universe or God?
What unnecessary desires and fears do you need to let go of in order to follow Jesus more faithfully?
What do we bring to the table this evening?
Offertory Song: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree by Elizabeth Poston, sung by Ensemble Altera
Preface Dialogue --
North Side: We thank you. In the fullness of time, you brought forth our brother Jesus To draw us ever close to you.
He reminds us that we also are divine creatures,
Being birthed every moment by the Divine Mystery.
South Side: Being one of us, he humbled himself dying on the cross for speaking out for the most humble and rejected among us.
In the spirit and example of Jesus,
we are gathered here to celebrate his memory,
to follow his example and become a living sign of his presence in our world.
North Side: In the evening before he died, during his last meal with his friends, he asked them to remember him in the breaking of the bread.
We recall that he took bread and thanked you for your covenant love.
He took bread, and gave it to his friends, saying:
All: Take this bread and share it among you. This is my body given for you.
South Side: He also took the cup of wine. Again he gave you praise and shared it with those who were with him, saying:
All: Take this and drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood, shed for my people everywhere.
All: May the Spirit of life and wholeness, who transforms the gifts we present, transform us too, that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love and healing to those whose lives we touch.
The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life.
So, grant that in union with all peoples, living and dead, we may strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness, united in acclaiming the God of life, whose abundance is offered to each and to all, ‘til the Kingdom arrives in the fullness of time. This prayer we make in the name of our healing and nurturing God, through, with and in whom we offer these gifts, sources of life, love and goodness, now and forever. Amen
Nancy: Kiss of Peace
And now, let us offer one another in place with a sign of peace and love.
Dan: Taught by Jesus himself and formed by the Word of God we proudly call out.
All: Oh Thou, from whom the breath of life comes, who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration,Focus your light within us – make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now –
Through our fiery hearts and willing hands.
Help us love beyond our ideals
And sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
Animate the earth within us: we then feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.
Untangle the knots within us so that we can mend our hearts simple ties to each other.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
Out of you, the astonishing fire,
Returning light and sound to the cosmos. Amen.
Dan: Everyone is welcome to this table because we are an intentional community of love; and it is love that makes Eucharist possible, Our God, whom the universe cannot contain, is present to us in this bread.
He who redeems us and calls us by name, now meets us in this cup.
So, come, Beloved Friends, and take this bread, drink this wine,
In them, God comes to us, so that we may come to God.
Dan: We invite everyone now on Zoom in a gesture of cosmic love to partake of this communion we share while we listen to our Communion Song.
COMMUNION SONG: Phoenix Rising: Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens - "Omoide"
CLOSING PRAYER:
All: Persuade us to learn wisdom
From the alive and eloquent universe.
You are our God, the God with us and beyond us.
We hope to be your joy.
-William Cleary, Prayers to an Evolutionary God
And the people of this beloved Emmaus Community say, “Amen.”
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